What happens when a former Zen Buddhist monk and his feminist wife experience an apparition of the Virgin Mary? “This book could not have come at a more auspicious time, and the message is mystical perfection, not to mention a courageous one. I adore this book.”—Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit Before a vision of a mysterious “Lady” invited Clark Strand and Perdita Finn to pray the rosary, they were not only uninterested in becoming Catholic but finished with institutional religion altogether. Their main spiritual concerns were the fate of the planet and the future of their children and grandchildren in an age of ecological collapse. But this Lady barely even referred to the Church and its proscriptions. Instead, she spoke of the miraculous power of the rosary to transform lives and heal the planet, and revealed the secrets she had hidden within the rosary’s prayers and mysteries—secrets of a past age when forests were the only cathedrals and people wove rose garlands for a Mother whose loving presence was as close as the ground beneath their feet. She told Strand and Finn: The rosary is My body, and My body is the body of the world. Your body is one with that body. What cause could there be for fear? Weaving together their own remarkable story of how they came to the rosary, their discoveries about the eco-feminist wisdom at the heart of this ancient devotion, and the life-changing revelations of the Lady herself, the authors reveal an ancestral path—available to everyone, religious or not—that returns us to the powerful healing rhythms of the natural world.

NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER! "I've loved every one of Susanna's books! She has bedrock research and a butterfly's delicate touch with characters—sure recipe for historical fiction that sucks you in and won't let go!"—DIANA GABALDON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outlander A riveting and romantic journey through time, The Rose Garden drops a modern woman into the middle of a historical fiction novel when she's thrown back to 18th century Cornwall—only to find that might just be where she belongs. After the death of her sister, Eva Ward leaves Hollywood and all its celebrities behind to return to the only place she feels she truly belongs, the old house on the coast of Cornwall, England. She's seeking comfort in memories of childhood summers, but what she finds is mysterious voices and hidden pathways that sweep her not only into the past, but also into the arms of a man who is not of her time. Soon Eva discovers that the man, Daniel Butler, is very, very real and he draws her into a world of intrigue, treason, and love. Inside the old British house, begins to question her place in the present, she realizes she must decide where she really belongs: in the life she knows or the past she feels so drawn towards. A brilliant escape that gives one woman the chance to time-travel and find her place in British history, The Rose Garden presents Susanna Kearsley's signature combination of romance and fascinating historical fiction at its very best. Also by Susanna Kearsley: The Winter Sea The Firebird A Desperate Fortune Named of the Dragon The Shadowy Horses The Splendour Falls Season of Storms Mariana Bellewether

Marys flowers by Vincenzina Krymow Illustrated by A. Joseph Barrish, S.M. With Meditations by M. Jean FriskSince medieval times, flowers have taken their names from the virtues of Mary, or events in her life. Learn the legends that fostered such names, and their biblical origins. Spend time with the meditations they inspire.Marys Flowers: Gardens, Legends and Meditations is a treasury of botanical history and lore. Thirty beautiful illustrations based on medieval woodcuts bring each bloom to colorful life. Even if you don't plant a Mary garden of your own, you will find a virtual Eden within. Visit awhile with these pages and keep company with Mary.

"To you, blessed soul whom the Lord draws to the desert to speak to your heart; to you alone who chose it as unique, better: that He chose as host of praise forever! Do you want to burn in front of His adorable Face like a very pure wax? Do you want, like the Cherubim, like the Seraphim, to be irradiated with His clarity, ablaze with His love, to be for Him, in your turn, only light and charity? Consent to forget the world, the universe and yourself. If you hesitate to lose your life and lose it, do not go further. The following will not enlighten you. If the abyss tempts you, beg the Lord to envelop you in solitude; to throw you into the silence that it inhabits, fills, where it manifests. For yourself, try to live like this. As much as you can, in the exact obedience and perfect charity, you will avoid these four things, major obstacles to interior silence, and which make habitual contemplation impossible-interior noise, interior discussions, obsessions, concern for yourself. This done, you will have crossed the doors of silence"--

Deals with Medieval and Renaissance botanical symbolism of flowers associated with the Virgin Mary and the connotation of her virtues, attributes and mysteries.

BIOGRAPHERS have already told us much about St. Louis De Montfort and the Rosary; now, with this first English edition of THE SECRET OF THE ROSARY, we can listen to Montfort speaking for himself. Drawing upon his own experience as well as upon the experience of others, he endeavors to bring home to the reader, “in a simple and straightforward manner,” as he himself tells us, the authentic message of the Rosary; namely, that it is a veritable school of Christian life. He sees it as including essentially the meditation of the mysteries of the life, death and glory of Jesus and Mary, with a view not only to honoring but especially imitating their virtues as held up to our consideration in each mystery. Aeterna Press

Grandma Lupita tells her granddaughter Rose and Rose's friend, Terry, the story about Our Lady of Guadalupe and the miracle that occurred near Mexico City in 1531. Includes facts about the event and its influence.

... ʺHow can prayers said over and over again like that be any good?ʺ Mistress Margaret was silent for a moment. ʺI saw young Mrs. Martin last week,ʺ she said, ʺwith her little girl in her lap. She had her arms around her motherʹs neck, and was being rocked to and fro; and every time she rocked she said ʹOh, mother.ʹ ʺ ʺBut, then,ʺ said Isabel, after a momentʹs silence, ʺshe was only a child.ʺ ʺ 'Except ye become as little children --' ʺ quoted Mistress Margaret softly ‐ ʺyou see, my Isabel, we are nothing more than children with God and His Blessed Mother. To say, ʹHail Mary, Hail Mary,ʹ is the best way of telling her how much we love her. And, then, this string of beads is like Our Ladyʹs girdle, and her children love to finger it, and whisper to her. And then we say our Our Fathers too; and all the while we are talking, she is showing us pictures of her dear Child, and we look at all the great things He did for us, one by one; and then we turn the page and begin again. ...

Roses, pleasure and politics: a fresh take on Orwell as an avid gardener, whose political writing was grounded in his passion for the natural world. 'I loved this book... An exhilarating romp through Orwell's life and times' Margaret Atwood 'Expansive and thought-provoking' Independent Outside my work the thing I care most about is gardening - George Orwell Inspired by her encounter with the surviving roses that Orwell is said to have planted in his cottage in Hertfordshire, Rebecca Solnit explores how his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and the intertwined politics of nature and power. Following his journey from the coal mines of England to taking up arms in the Spanish Civil War; from his prescient critique of Stalin to his analysis of the relationship between lies and authoritarianism, Solnit finds a more hopeful Orwell, whose love of nature pulses through his work and actions. And in her dialogue with the author, she makes fascinating forays into colonial legacies in the flower garden, discovers photographer Tina Modotti's roses, reveals Stalin's obsession with growing lemons in impossibly cold conditions, and exposes the brutal rose industry in Colombia. A fresh reading of a towering figure of the 20th century which finds solace and solutions for the political and environmental challenges we face today, Orwell's Roses is a remarkable reflection on pleasure, beauty, and joy as acts of resistance. 'Luminous...It is efflorescent, a study that seeds and blooms, propagates thoughts, and tends to historical associations' New Statesman 'A genuinely extraordinary mind, whose curiosity, intelligence and willingness to learn seem unbounded' Irish Times